A Tidy Series + Counters

Hello Friends!

When I recently announced my home organizing business, so many of you sent encouraging notes and offered support. I am so grateful!

Continuing the decluttering conversation, I now want to offer you a gift: A Tidy Series.
As we journey to love our homes more each day, here are some practical steps to get there. Sprinkled here and there among my regular devotional writing, I hope they inspire you today. Enjoy!

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Counters.

This is where we start.

The catch-all for our clutter, for the things we are too tired to put away, for the things we don’t know where to put.

Before we know it, our counters look like this:

Help!I know this to be true because that’s my counter. Pre-decluttering.

The counter held my oil diffuser (which I use once a week), baby Tylenol, vitamins, honey (which I didn’t want to put in the pantry because I was paranoid it’d sticky everything up!), bananas, bread, coffee maker (for the dark side drinker in our family…I only believe in tea!), and other miscellaneous items.

It was so annoying! Every time I baked, I longed for a clear counter. Yet I settled for working around all the stuff.

But…then I started decluttering! And what a difference it made.

AhhhhhDecluttering the space was actually easy once I got started. I don’t know why I put it off for so long!

Following one of the best tidying principles, I got rid of the clutter by putting everything in its proper place.

The diffuser and coffee maker now fit snugly in the cabinets above. Aren’t they so happy together? 🙂

Happy TogetherI put the medicine and vitamins away in their respective cabinets, out of baby’s reach.

Out of Baby's ReachAnd I gathered my sticky honey and other sugary things onto a pretty blue plate I have been wanting to use more anyway. Now my counter is clear and my pantry stays clean. Yay.

Clean and TidyFinally, I stored the bread and bananas and miscellaneous food items in the pantry/fridge.

I love my new spacious counter! It makes baking so much more enjoyable and I love walking by and seeing my pretty blue willow china.

Blue WillowI don’t have the fanciest kitchen- some our rental house cabinets are loose and patched together. But creating an open space gives a sense of luxury- and enables me to better see the things I DO LOVE. Like my pretty china.

And having a clear work space inspires my to have more clear spaces throughout our home. Clear space attracts clear space.

What about you? Do you have a counter that makes you cringe whenever you pass by? Why not set the microwave timer for 20 minutes today and commit to clearing out as much stuff as you can in that short time?

It will make baking those scones even more enjoyable. 🙂

Until next time!

E

Bankable

Bankable
You are bankable, God.
When the places in me are gaping holes-
Bottomless pits of deficiency-
You are the Life I need.

When I am
…Crippled inside
…Have the self-esteem of dust
…”Beyond repair”
I rejoice.

Because that’s when I can make a full withdrawal from Your account-
The bankable King of creation,
The bankable King of my heart.

You infuse me with Your riches,
Drown me in Your wealth (Your Love).
My heart can beat again.
I’ll always be with You.

You are bankable, My God.
And You never bounce a check.

Just One More Minute

Just One More Minute
One time you were my favorite.
I pasted pictures of you all around my office,
Feeling squishy inside every time I’d catch sight of you.

I’d ache to talk with you just one more minute,
Hating the lady who’d cut in and say one more minute and the call would be cut.

I thought a year would never end,
And then you were home.

Almost a decade shot by.
And here we are.
Sitting across the dinner table.

It’s hard to hear you because
The toddler is singing,
The baby is crying,
And living a story is louder than I thought it’d be.

But I still love you.
You’re still my favorite.
And I still wish we could talk just one more minute.

Thoughts on Things

Thoughts on Things

“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:3

I get a happy feeling when I declutter. A feeling like no other (except perhaps when I write). It starts in my toes and goes all the way to my heart where it flutters and buzzes. I love to tidy. 🙂

Yes. I know I am fully a nerd that way. But as I embark on a little business to help others declutter, I have been pondering my philosophy of order. Why do I love it so much?
I think I have discovered the reason.

The home is our own special kingdom, a sacred place we get to manage. Whether a mansion, hut, or rented studio room, God gives us our own “plot of earth” to steward. What delight, what joy, what training can come as we put our hands to this gladsome task! Toddlers may conspire, dust and grime encroach- but still what a joy that we have a plot! As children of a King, who has a kingdom, I believe there is an innate desire in us to have domain, to rule a place. And the first and happiest place we get to rule? Our own space.

And ruling our space well brings many happy results.

If we want lives we love, then, as much as it depends on us, only have those things we love in our lives. Perhaps we can’t donate our annoyingly loud neighbor to the Goodwill or fix every messy situation, but we can push back on the crush of stuff in our homes. And that can bring peace and control in whatever situation we find ourselves.

Being tidy and having uncluttered space empowers us to move through the other rooms of our lives with confidence. We learn discernment both in the choice of our physical things and in the choice of our lives’ work. We don’t need to pay a seminar fee or attend a conference to learn these lessons. All this training can take place in our own home.
What joy!

We aren’t perfect (can anyone say yard work?!!), but every day we get better. We get better at home.